Oil in the Wok

Blurb

Meet a defunct father with a failing fashion line, a mother obsessed with plastic surgery and Amber Yang, the Chinese-American soon to be med student, or so it seems. She’s got it all planned out, well by ‘she’ we mean her parents. As with any ‘clever Asian kid’ stereotype Amber is expected to behave herself and go to medical school, but when she meets teen pop sensation Brooke Fulton a whole new world of possibility is opened up to her. Soon the struggles of her parents attempting to spoon feed her into medical school will be long forgotten as an entire new world is opened up to Amber.

Chapter 1

I was trying to imagine “Amber Yang” in neon pink and green flashing marquee lights, then thought yellow lights might have been more fitting.

Nah. That couldn’t happen. I was and always would be Amber Yang. Never the Amber Yang. Never the most talked about Yang in the whole history of China, which included ancient China, of course. Just plain old Amber, only daughter of Mark and Iris, completely unrelated to the singer.

I’d been having trouble sleeping. Must have been insomnia or something—maybe those growing pains I read about somewhere. That was it. Maybe it was like one of those midlife crises that older people went through, except for teenagers. Or maybe I just aged fast.

For the past nine years I’d been trying, subconsciously of course, to figure out who I was. Mom once told me that I knew how to sing before I knew how to talk and that I was better at it, too. She sent me to ballet lessons at the age of three, but finding myself no good at it, I quit four years later. That was when I began to draw. I suspect I inherited the artsy gene from Dad. A fashion designer, he was recently cut from Holly Doll, a sitcom for young girls who love clothes and love playing dress-up. Working on clothing designs for the show kept him busy, and he had a way of missing out. His career had just come to a screeching halt. They told him his designs weren’t chic enough. I had no idea what that meant, as I had never ventured into the fashion world, but I was pretty sure it was a big insult. So he was back to working at Co Z Monster, the local café, making coffee to help the overweight become morbidly obese. Oh, and getting on Mom’s nerves. I bet they couldn’t go one day without fighting, and now things had been looking sour, especially for Dad. Once, I did an oil painting of them fighting. I took a snapshot when they weren’t paying attention, developed the picture, and created a likeness. Ironically, Mom said it was some of my best work. She framed it and hung it on their bedroom wall, above the bedpost. She had all my paintings framed.

Considering that it was my junior year, I probably should have been applying to art school. But I was not. I wanted to start singing again. I didn’t know where it would take me, but I had an idea of where I wanted to go. The problem was…no one knew about it yet. It was not exactly a popular choice with my parents. Neither was art school, but the ’rents thought I could do painting until I figured out what I’m really going to do. For as long as I could remember, my parents had wanted me to get into medical school. It was such common knowledge that even Mr. Frasca, my Chemistry teacher from the year before, labeled my condition as “the Chinese way.”

When I think of my Chemistry teacher, I first think of his hair. Mr. Frasca was balding and the few strands left here and there were white. He had two sons, and the eldest was about to turn twenty-eight this year. I don’t know how long he had been teaching, but Mr. Frasca looked ancient. At the very least I could surmise that he had enough Chinese students over the years to come up with a name for my condition, as it were. That’s cool. It would have been even cooler if I could have gotten him to convince my parents that I wasn’t going to follow “the Chinese way.” Yeah, maybe on the day the sky’s made of blueberry ice cream.

My plan was to cut a demo, send it off to various record companies, get signed, sell billions of LPs, get noticed by the media, and land my first acting gig all by the time I turned twenty. Why twenty? No particular reason. I just happened to like that number. And…it was not that far into the future. Why acting? Well, it just seemed that if you were a singer, then you had to be an actor as well. (In my case, actress.)

There was just one problem with this plan: if I didn’t let my parents know what I was up to soon, I might not even get a chance to sing “do-re-mi.” But for now, I had to figure out a way to nip this insomnia in the bud or I’d be going crazy soon! Thankfully the next day was Friday, so after I forced my butt to get up, get to school, and make it through all my classes, I could finally drive me and my beat-up old car to my favorite spot by the Hoop, otherwise known as the Hope Court. Maybe I’d even get in some balling time. After all, they say physical activity can cure sleeping problems. Either way, I had to get to the Hoop; it was my secret place where I liked to hang and hide from everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone.

Ruby0h:
Overall I thought your story was really good! It drew me in right away and kept me interested as the story progressed. I loved the character of Kayla being inserted into this story, and the way she affected and shaped the life of the original story into something totally new and interesting. I lo...

emmaneal74:
I loved this booked. Would definitely buy it when published and read it again. The story flowed in such a way I just couldn't put it down. I was never confused about the characters or their roles in the story which can happen sometimes with so many lead. I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to r...

Dessie Williams:
loved the book. the plot the characters all just great.I think it's a must read. once you start this book it's hard to put down. hope it gets published....I think this book is a must read.great job!!!!

OpheliaJones:
This story took a different kind of spin on the "normal girl lives with definitely not normal guy" plot. The plot points of Frey's father, Liam's family, and Frey's view of Liam's world were good to read. She did not fall in love with him in the first couple weeks. Their lives were not smooth in ...

daneliacapote116:
This was one of my favorites! When you start reading you want to continue I can't wait for the rest of the novel!! The characters where awesome! Everything was great. I encourage you to read this novel, your going to love it it and want to read it more and more !!

Sandra Estrada:
I loved every minute of it and I thank my lucky stars that brought me to the story, it's been a whirlwind of emotions, plot twist after plot twist but I never got tired of them. Abby and Kade's story is a hard one to understand but once you're submerged in their story and love, you can't help but...

maewilde25:
I am so in love with this story!!! captivated me till the very end, there wasn't a dull moment. Didn't particularly enjoy the lay out and some bits of info was missing along with how a 21 year old man amassed so much wealth that needed to be explained other than that and a few spelling errors, th...

Giuliana Cassetta:
My face is full of tears, I never cried like now with a book or even a movie. I loved every single chapter. I truly don't know what to say, I'm out of words and my eyes hurt from crying. Such an bittersweet story, it's so wonderful. One of my favorites for sure. Keep it up!

Alex Rushmer:
This was not what I expected, but I enjoyed it a lot Malfoy was always one of the characters that I liked a lot, so I like that a lot of this happens between him and Colette. I read the first couple chapters, and I enjoyed your writing style and am excited to see where you take this story. My com...

SandraHan1:
This story is very descriptive, with vivid scenes from the very beginning, which made for a good scene setting. I love the symbolism in names, such as “Naysayers”, “Hadd”, etc . The story itself is revolutionary, intriguing, emotional and exciting. I was very pleased to see that there is a happy ...

deniserudolp:
Breath of fresh air.....reading so many story's and wonderful writers. ...A story comes along as this that had me frustrated. ..hurt. ...In love. .and overjoyed all into one book ....wonderful story...that you can read over and over....and nd enjoy every time.

Hudson:
Your story was fantastic Erin! The Rising Sun was one of the first stories I read on Inkitt, and I have to say I don't regret the three to four days I spent pouring through the story.Probably the biggest strength I see in your writing is your characterisation of Eliana, Oriens, and the rest of th...

Samantha Speed:
There were several punctuation, grammar, and missing word problems but it did not detract from the story. This story was very well done, enjoyable, and had an interesting enough plot. It took a while to finish. This story is not complete. I love it, but I want to see another book or have more cha...

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